Terms & Conditions

This document is to be viewed by all involved parties as a binding and insoluble contract in agreement to the terms stated below. After starting any job with The Design Hive, you authorise The Design Hive and its associated companies to proceed with the creation of the service’s/product’s as discussed with the sales representative and confirmed on the Job Approval.

1. Office Hours

The Design Hive office hours are 9am – 5.00pm, Monday to Friday. Telephone calls not answered will be diverted to our answering machine and dealt with the same working day if possible, if not the next working day. Telephone calls received out of hours will be diverted to our answering machine and dealt with on the next working day. Where staff mobile telephone numbers are provided, we ask that you exercise discretion when calling out of hours and only call in emergencies, as in some cases these are also the staff’s personal telephones. We appreciate your understanding. Contacting The Design Hive. In order to deal more effectively with your queries, we ask that you put any questions to us in writing. This system allows us to distribute questions to the appropriate departments, and thereby respond to you, more efficiently. There are three ways to contact us: Email: info@thedesignhive.co.uk and for amendments or updates please email: info@thedesignhive.co.uk, post: The Design Hive, Quicksign House, Walrow Industrial Estate, Evercreech Way, Highbridge, Somerset, TA9 4AR or call: 01278 783273

2. Provision of Materials

Deadlines are dependant on the client meeting their responsibilities. Projects are ONLY booked in once deposit is made and all content, text and images are received. We cannot proceed with your project or give a date for completion until content is received. You agree to provide us with the specific copy, images and information we require in order to create your product, or to advise us as to where we can locate such materials. We accept no responsibility for your site not being put live/product being completed by a specific date if we are unable to secure necessary and/or suitable information and/or materials from you. If you cannot supply the information you wish to feature in your product, we will do what we can to obtain it, but we accept no responsibility for errors, omissions or discrepancies which may be present on the final product, as these may arise through our lack of specialist knowledge regarding the content of your product. The time taken to compile the data, as well as any time required to correct errors, omissions or discrepancies which have arisen through your not providing us with adequate materials, will be charged to you at our standard rate. We accept no responsibility for the delay caused in providing you with the final product as a result of your supplying us with insufficient or unsuitable materials. This does not apply if the additional cost could have been avoided but for unreasonable delay on the part of The Design Hive in ascertaining the unsuitability of the materials with which you provide us. Where you supply or specify materials, we will take every care to secure the best results in the finished product, but we accept no responsibility for imperfect work caused by defects in or unsuitability of materials so supplied or specified.

3. The Brief (Print)

During the consultation period, a project brief will be discussed and set up between client and The Design Hive to enable The Design Hive to fully understand your design requirements and goals. Quotations will be based upon this project brief. If the project brief changes by request of the client, The Design Hive reserve the right to requote for additional works required or refuse the project if outside of The Design Hive’s services.

4. Print Proof Agreement

If the sales representative has provided you with a proof, you agree to the design and contents of the printed/pdf document as depicted on the proof. By approval via email, you absolve The Design Hive of all liability for any errors, omissions or discrepancies which may be present on the proof. Once the final proof if supplied, you are not able to make any changes to the final product, nor are you able to hold The Design Hive responsible for anything you are unhappy with. Our standard Terms & Conditions revokes your right to take any kind of action against The Design Hive for any aspect of the work with which you are later dissatisfied.

As long as the finished product is as discussed with the sales representative and consistent with the proof if supplied, you must pay in full for the work. This fact applies whether or not you later take issue with any aspect of the product. These terms are final and non-negotiable.

5. On Screen Proofing Colours (Web & Print)

If you are viewing designs on an iPad or iPhone the colours may show up very light/bright, it is always best to view designs on a computer monitor (although this may not be accurate, it should be a truer representation).

6. Making Changes After Proof Stage (Print Only)

If a change is requested, we will do everything we can to make the correction before the printing starts, but we cannot guarantee this. We accept no responsibility, under any circumstances, for any mistakes present on the completed work, as the signing-off of a proof absolves us of all liability. Once the proof is signed off or agreed, whether verbally or via email and the artwork has been sent to print, you will incur the full printing costs, unless we can stop the artwork before it goes to print.

7. Print Quality (Print Only)

Every effort will be made to obtain the best possible colour reproduction on customer’s work, but because of the nature of the processes involved, The Design Hive cannot guarantee an exact match in colour or texture between any materials with which you supply us, and the printed article. Our budget business cards do not have a guaranteed specification and we reserve the right to vary stock or quality as either we see fit, or circumstances/availability dictate. If the exact specification is important, the cards must be ordered as a bespoke job.

8. Quantity Supplied (Print Only)

Every effort is made to produce the exact quantity of items ordered. However, some variation is inherent in the print process and so you accept that minor variations in quantity are possible. These do not affect the price charged.

9. Claims (Print Only)

Advice of damage, delay or partial loss of goods in transit or of non-delivery must be given in writing to The Design Hive within three clear days of delivery (or, in the case of non-delivery, within 21 days of dispatch of the goods) and any claim in respect thereof must be made in writing to The Design Hive and the carrier within seven clear days of delivery (or, in the case of non-delivery, within 42 days of dispatch). All other claims must be made in writing to The Design Hive within 21 days of delivery. The Design Hive shall not be liable in respect of any claim unless the aforementioned requirements have been complied with except in any particular case where the customer proves that

(i) it was not possible to comply with the requirements and

(ii) advice (where required) was given and the claim made as soon as reasonably possible.

10. Standing Material (Print Only)

All materials (including but not limited to film, plates, negatives and positives) produced and used by The Design Hive during the production process remain the property of The Design Hive. Where these materials are provided by the client, they remain the property of the client. The Design Hive reserves the right to dispose of lithographic work immediately after the order is executed unless written arrangements are made to the contrary. In the latter event, rent may be charged for the safe-keeping of the materials.

11. Payment Terms (Print)

New customers agree to pay a deposit of 50% of the final bill upon ordering, and to pay the outstanding balance on delivery of the completed work. Existing customers agree to adhere to the terms stated on the invoice. All deposit payments are non-refundable.

12. Payment Terms (Web)

All customers agree to pay a deposit of 50% of the final bill immediately. For themed websites, the outstanding balance is due once the site is complete and signed off, within 48 hours after the site goes live. For custom built websites, the outstanding balance is due when the sites goes into development. All deposit payments are non-refundable.

Once the bill is settled in full, we will put the site live on its own domain name, or – if you have not yet selected one – it will remain live on our server. If you possess your own domain name, we will initiate whatever process is necessary to put the site live once the bill is settled.

13. Website Quotations

Website quotations, unless otherwise stated, do not include SEO work, setting up of Google My Business, website fixes, or anything else not outlined in the quotation. One-off build costs include the design and development of the site including three sets of reasonable amendments. Once the site has gone live, the customer has one month to check the site and notify The Design Hive of any errors. After one month, website developments, amendments or fixes must be paid for at our standard rate.

Website changes are charged at £55.00 ex vat per hour (or part thereof) for all design and development. If you want to introduce new material in the form of extra pages, additional functions, or more information than is already available on your site, this must be paid for as a new job.

14. License Fees

Websites license updates, otherwise known as license fees, are included within your quotation. This covers costs towards maintaining the licenses of software that runs your website. WordPress and plugins update multiple times a year, This is to ensure they are kept up to date and to keep security as tight as possible.

15. Maintenance Packages

A maintenance package gives a clients website a set number of hours each month for The Design Hive to correct fixes and make client alterations. This is available on request.

16. Hosting & 100% Renewable Power

Our servers are based in Netwise House, London and are 100% UK based. Running servers 24/7 is great for uptime and productivity but less good for the environment. It’s estimated that by 2020 global datacentre usage will account for 3% of all CO2 emissions. We’ve known this for years but simply purchasing carbon credits (which do almost nothing to actually lower global CO2 output) or paying for trees to be planted, often on the other side of the world, doesn’t tackle the root of the problem; dirty power generation.

Inspired by the “We Are Still In” movement in the US in the wake of the US’s planned withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, we wanted to do our bit and demonstrate civic and environmental leadership here in the UK. We are truly renewable. No carbon offsets, no planting a tree (though we’re looking at doing this too, we like trees) just 100% renewable electricity from sources like the sun, wind and sea. We’ve gone with Ecotricity, the first company in the UK to offer true 100% renewable energy. They do residential too and switching is a breeze.

We’ve always chosen technology designed to minimise our environmental impact. We were heavy early adopters of SSD technology, which uses considerably less power for storing data. Netwise have built a facility with a PUE rating of 1.12 (1 is perfect and most efficient datacentres claim 1.2 – 1.4). The final piece of the puzzle was the power itself. By paying a premium for 100% renewable energy we’re providing the economic incentive for more solar, wind and tidal facilities to be created, reducing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and creating a path to a cleaner future.

Environmentally ethical power consumption is practically unheard of among hosting providers and those that try it just buy carbon credits or plant trees somewhere. Even those that are using renewables only have it as part of their mix. Your hosting is now driven by 100% renewable energy, so you can sleep better at night knowing that we’re not burning fossil fuels to power your site.

Hosting for websites is charged yearly in advance. No clients or third parties will be granted FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to our servers or any of our affiliates. Hosting uptime is guaranteed at 99.9%. All websites hosted by The Design Hive are updated on a regular basis. During this time, your site will briefly remain offline until the update is complete. This downtime is in addition to hosting uptime and each sites downtime can vary.

17. Email Accounts

Up to five email accounts are provided. The Design Hive advise the client to set up email accounts as IMAP, so all emails map back to the server. Email accounts set up as POP mean the emails are not saved on our servers, instead they remain within a chosen email client (such as Outlook, Mail, etc) on chosen desktop or device. The Design Hive take no responsibility for the setting up of email accounts, loss of emails or emails sent in error. The Design Hive cannot retrieve emails from recipient once sent. The Design Hive take no responsibility for any loss of business through non retrieval of emails, bounced messages or undelivered electronic mail. The Design Hive take no responsibility for the content of emails including attachments and viruses. Cancellation of any website will result in the withdrawal of the hosting package after 5 working days. All hosting packages are non-refundable. Should the client request that a website be transferred to The Design Hive from another host, a transfer fee of £55.00 + VAT will be charged. Website hosting will be renewed automatically as part of the initial contract. Clients must cancel their renewal in writing within this notice period, otherwise all charges will become payable and cancellation will NOT be accepted after this date, as monies will have been paid by The Design Hive on the client’s behalf. It is not The Design Hive’s responsibility if there is a delay in the transfer of a domain name held with another provider, and this will not be accepted as a reason to delay payment in full of all outstanding monies.

18. Information Technology (I.T.)

The Design Hive are not an IT company. We will help you set up your email accounts, but it is not the responsibility of The Design Hive to do this. Where IT support is required, we suggest the client sources a suitable IT company to help set up and maintain email accounts. Where there are multiple client employees and email accounts, we suggest using an IT company to host your email accounts.

19. Systems

Any systems, including Kontrolit Content Management System, provided to the client remain the intellectual property of The Design Hive and as such no access is given to the source code or database. Systems cannot be transferred away from our provided hosting solution. All E-commerce shops are provided as empty shells (unless otherwise stated within quotation) ready for populating with products. Training is given to client for all E-commerce/CMS systems. A delay in the client populating the e-shop/site will not be accepted as a reason for delayed payment as, once it is ready to be populated and training has been given, The Design Hive’s job is done. The Design Hive offers a service to populate the client’s shop site/CMS on their behalf, and prices are available on request for this service. This does not include any photography, and where clients feel unable to create their own imagery of products, a photographer must be sought. The Design Hive are happy to recommend independent photographers where necessary, but the contract will be between the client and said photographer. Additional training and support packages are available, and again the prices for these services are available on request. Once payment is made in full, copyright and title will pass to the client.

20. Warranty

The Design Hive guarantees all of its websites provided to clients as any faults or bugs will be rectified within a reasonable period of time so as not to interrupt the service provided by clients to their clients / users for an unacceptable time. It is the clients responsibility to report any errors on a website. Any fixes will be charged at our standard hourly rate. All websites once completed have one month to report any errors. Errors, fixes or developments reported after this period, will be charged at our standard hourly rate.

21. Website Proofs (custom-builds)

Custom-builds include static PDF proofs prior to proceeding in to development. Once a client has agreed the proofs and instructed The Design Hive to proceed to build, any subsequent changes in style or design requested by the client will be charged for at the appropriate hourly rate.

22. Website Proofs (Themed)

Themed sites do not include static PDF proofs. Once a client has agreed a brief and look and feel of the site, The Design Hive will pick a theme and proceed to build, any subsequent changes in theme, style or design requested by the client will be charged for at the appropriate hourly rate.

23. Copyright

Unless negotiated and agreed in writing, the copyrights of general artwork, commissioned artwork, illustrations, website design, programming and copy belong to The Design Hive. If you supply us with material, it is your responsibility to obtain all necessary copyrights for its use, and we assume that you possess these. In such cases, the copyright belongs to you. By signing this agreement, you agree to indemnify The Design Hive from any claim which arises regarding the use of material with which you supply us. We reserve the right to use any artwork or printing we produce for the purposes of promoting our services unless you request otherwise in writing.

24. Quotes/Estimates

All quotes for work are valid for thirty (30) days, after which time all proposed work will have to be re-quoted. We take no responsibility for a re-quoted price differing from an original quote.

25. Illegal Matter

The Design Hive reserves the right not to print any matter deemed illegal, libellous or offensive, or which may be an infringement of the proprietary or other rights of any third party. This agreement indemnifies us in respect of any claims, costs and expenses arising out of any libellous matter or any infringement of copyright, patent, design or of any other proprietary or personal rights contained in any material printed for the customer. The indemnity shall extend to any amounts paid on a lawyer’s advice in settlement of any claim.

26. Consequential Loss

The Design Hive accept no liability whatsoever for consequential or third party losses, resulting in a delay in delivery howsoever caused.

27. Financial Loss

The Design Hive accept no liability whatsoever for financial loss or loss of earnings arising from products or services provided by The Design Hive.

28. Force Majeure

The Design Hive accept no responsibility if we are unable to carry out any provision of the contract for any reason beyond our control including (without limiting the foregoing) Act of God, legislation, war, fire, flood, drought, failure of power supply, lock-out, strike or other action taken by employees in contemplation or furtherance of a dispute or owing to any inability to procure materials required for the performance of the contract. During the continuance of such a contingency you may, by written notice to ourselves, elect to terminate the contract and pay for work done and materials used, but subject thereto shall otherwise accept delivery when available.

29. Liability

The Design Hive shall not be liable for any loss to the customer arising from delay in transit caused by circumstances beyond The Design Hive’s control.

30. Price Breakdown

The invoice we send you will be itemised, showing the cost of the design and research process, as well as the production itself. Supplying us with suitable material will, therefore, reduce the time spent on design and, thereby, the final charge. VAT is charged at the current Customs and Excise rates and according to current regulations, irrespective of whether or not it is included in a price quotation.

31. Jobs Put On Hold or Cancelled by the Client

Jobs put on hold or cancelled by the client during production will be invoiced at current stage and materials. This invoice must be paid in full together with any VAT that falls due accordingly.

32. Credit Terms

For invoices not settled within the agreed credit terms, we reserve the right to charge interest on the overdue debt at 2% above the total invoice fees and an administration fee to cover the debt recovery costs.

33. Insolvency

Any customer ceasing to pay their debts in the ordinary course of business or proving unable to pay their debts as they become due or, being, a company, is deemed to be unable to pay its debts, or has a winding-up petition issued against it or, being a person, commits an act of bankruptcy or has a bankruptcy petition issued against it, The Design Hive, without prejudice to other remedies, shall

(i) have the right not to proceed further with the contract or any other work for the customer and be entitled to charge for work already carried out (whether completed or not) and materials purchased for the customer, such charge to be an immediate debt due to it, and

(ii) in respect of all unpaid debts due from the customer, have a general lien on all goods and property in its possession (whether worked on or not) and shall be entitled on the expiration of 14 days’ notice to dispose of such goods or property in such manner and at such price as we think fit and to apply the proceeds towards such debts.

34. Data Protection

The Design Hive agrees keep the confidential information of its clients confidential, including all administration areas of websites and details of referrers and those who are referred. All such data recorded by a website will be completely secure, and all information will be treated as confidential in accordance with the Data Protection Act.